


Nights (and Mornings) at the Hostle

by AkimaDoll



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, F/M, Sex Talk, Sleepy Cuddles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-08 21:00:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13466445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AkimaDoll/pseuds/AkimaDoll
Summary: Gert has a panic attack, Chase talks her through it. They finally talk. I suck at summaries.This will be at least two chapters, maybe more if I write more than one night/morning. Chapter two will have frank informative talk about birth control and STD's.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This popped into my head at work, and now I'm up way past my bedtime writing the second chapter. Chapter one is from Chase's POV, second primarily from Gert.

It was 1 in the morning their second night in the Hostel, and Chase Stein couldn't sleep. His mind whirling with thoughts; _was his Dad still alive? was his Mom ok? Would a bad earthquake happen and implode the buried mansion and bury them inside? And how on earth did was this place still intact enough to have running water and power 50+ years after it had been buried by an earthquake in the first place? Would they get caught when they went out to get more supplies tomorrow? What if Gert got caught? Kissing Gert, touching her skin, kissing her skin, Gert touching him, sex with Gert, god that was amazing, oh shit, what if Gert had gotten_ pregnant _that night?_

Chase shoved the covers away impatiently, got out of bed and walked out into the hallway that he shared with Molly and Gert's rooms without bothering to put a shirt on, planning to go down to the living room and tinker with his Fistigons. He determinedly tried to keep his eyes from straying to the door of Gert's room as he padded by the door a few feet from his own. In the chaos of the last three days he hadn't really had a chance to pull Gert aside privately to try and talk with her, they had been too busy. Now that they were relatively settled though....

Chase didn't realize he had actually stopped outside Gert's door until he heard a strangled, sobbing breath through the door he hadn't realized was cracked open a few inches. He gently opened her door a little more and peeked his head around the door jamb,

“Gert, are you ok?” he said quietly into the dark room.

“I'm ok Chase, I'm ok” She replied, sounding anything but.

Shit. Gert was either having, or well on her way to, a full-blown anxiety attack. She had had a few since the night they ran away, but they were relatively minor and she had breathed her way out of them. This one sounded so so much worse. Chase instantly walked into her room, leaving the door cracked behind him letting the dim light from the hallway filter in so that he wasn't stumbling around in the pitch dark, and went to her bed, stepping around Old Lace where she was kneeling with her head on the bed trying to comfort her mistress. In the dim light he could see Gert, sitting up in the middle of the king-sized bed, head down, rocking slightly, her arms locked around her knees as she held them tight to her chest.

Chase sat down on the bed and scooted himself over until he was right next to Gert but a little behind her, his back against the headboard. He gently put his left arm around her until his hand was over her own locked together fists, leaving his right arm open so that she wouldn't feel trapped. Her body was shaking like a leaf, her breaths coming out in ragged gasps that she was trying so hard to stifle the sound of.

“Hey babe, I need you to breathe with me, ok?” Chase murmured into her ear. Gert gave a shaky nod of assent, and Chase started talking Gert through the guided breathing Karolina had taught him just in case this exact scenario ever happened, breathing in for five heartbeats, holding your breath for seven, and exhaling for nine.

At first Gert struggled to maintain the count, fighting to control her hyperventilating. Slowly but surely her body started unlocking from it's rigid position as her breathing became more regulated, her legs stretching out in front of her as she leaned back against Chase's solid chest, her head a little below his, so that he could bury his face in her hair if he wanted to. As Gert's sobs eased and her body continued to unwind, Chase stopped counting out loud, letting Gert follow the rise and fall of his chest against her back, his hands gently rubbing her arms.

Once he was feeling pretty good that the worst had passed, Chase let his breathing go back to a normal tempo, keeping an ear out for any hitches or uncertainty in Gert's breathing.

“Chase?” Gert murmured a little while later, going on after Chase hummed in reply, “can we lie down? And... can you stay with me for a while?”

“Of course” Chase replied, carefully scooting them both further down the bed and laying back slowly so that he wouldn't jostle Gert too badly. He was about to reach down with his free hand and pull the blankets up to cover them when Gert shifted, causing him to freeze. She continued wiggling for a minute while he lay there like a statue, afraid to move, until she had finished flipping herself over so that she was laying on her stomach, her face settling into the crook of his neck like it belonged there, her arm wrapped over his chest, her leg thrown over his groin and tangling with his legs.

 _Breathe Stein, breathe_ Chase thought to himself as he forced his body to relax, and reached down to finish grabbing the blankets. The arm he had had wrapped around her now cradled her to his chest, absently rubbing circles on the bare skin of the small of her back where the tank top she was wearing as a pajama top had ridden up a few inches. They both stayed quiet. Listening to the other breathe, until they both drifted to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after.

Gert Yorkes drifted awake from a wonderful deep sleep because of a muffled giggle, Old Lace's nails clicking across the floor, and her door quietly clicking shut. She was so warm, and who knew that Chase was such a good cuddler.... _Oh. SHIT_. The events of last night came flooding back to her – her panic attack, and how Chase had talked her through it until she was calm again. Now it was 7 AM according to the clock on her night stand, she was snuggled up with a shirtless sleeping Chase Stein, and _was that his hand on her ass? OH!_ In fact, not only was his left hand flat against her back holding her to his chest, his right hand was pretty squarely on her bare hip/ass thanks to the ridiculously short flannel sleep shorts Nico had grabbed for her at the thrift store, his thumb gently rubbing the bare skin, making her want to squirm against him as she felt that wonderful warmth of being totally turned on flood her body.

“Chase” She whispered, afraid to move.

“Mmmm, g'back to sleep Beautiful” he mumbled, his face turning to hers, his lips brushing against the top of her head, his arms pulling her a little tighter. Gert wanted to both die with embarrassment, since in his sleep-addled state he probably thought he was in bed with Eiffel or whichever other of the popular girls he'd gone out with in the past, or stay like this forever and pretend that he knew he was with her, plain old Gertrude Yorkes.

“Chase” she said in something almost like a normal speaking voice.

His eyes shot open, and for a second he held her tighter before very gently releasing her from his arms, sliding away from her in the bed. Gert immediately felt bereft, even though she knew deep down in her soul that guys like him do not like plain fat girls like her.

“Uhhhhh, good morning” Chase mumbled out as he sat up facing her, but didn't leave her bed like she thought he would.

“Yeah, morning” Gert mumbled back sitting up too, just a foot away from Chase, and trying to look anywhere but at the gorgeous, mussy-haired, shirtless guy in her bed. The silence stretched on for an eternity that was probably actually five seconds, before Gert babbled “listen, thanks so much for calming me down last night....”

“.... But now go away?” Chase finished for her, his voice quiet, his shoulders drooped. 

Gert had only ever seen him look like this once before, at the construction site when they were trying to destroy the drill, and she had told him that they were a one-time thing. It twisted her heart, but it was for both of their own good really, two people as different as them could never work. Better to cut things off then, before she couldn't bear the pain of losing him. 

They both sat silent for another moment, before Chase spoke again. “Can we please talk about the other night? Maybe now isn't the best time, but with everything that's going on I'm afraid we might not get another chance”.

Gert steeled herself for the worst, which would be Chase confirming it was a one-time-thing. 'I guess we should. I should probably have fair warning if I'm going to need to worry about getting any STD's from Eiffel”. _Shit, why did I say that? Why am I so mean to him?_ ”

Chase was looking down at his hands fisted on top of the blankets. “No, definitely no STD's”

“Really? You've been tested?” Gert's external voice was full of disbelief while her internal voice was screaming at her to stop being a bitch.

“No, because it's pretty damn unlikely to have an STD when you were a virgin” Chase shot back, finally looking her dead in the eyes, challenging her.

“What?” Gert whispered, mouth agape, the blood draining from her face. No way had Chase been a virgin, he had known exactly what to do when they were together that night. And he had dated Effel, the school skank, for too long not to have lost his V-card years ago.

“You heard me” he mumbled, looking away for a moment, before looking back. “You were the first person I've ever had sex with. The first person I've ever _wanted_ to have sex with. And now I'm scared that we are fugitives on the run, and I may have gotten this amazing girl that I've had a crush on for pretty much forever pregnant”. Chase looked away again.

“Hey” Gert said switching instantly from angry to concerned as she scooted over next to him until they were shoulder to shoulder and their legs touched under the blankets. “I am not pregnant”.

Chase looked at her “How can you possibly know that? It's been three days. I may not pay attention to a lot of things in school, but I remember health class pretty well”.

“This is probably TMI for you, but on my 16th birthday when I got my drivers license the first place I drove myself was to Planned Parenthood to get an IUD. I wanted to make sure If I ever found a guy I liked enough to sleep with that I had a back-up form of birth control that I didn't need to worry about in case a condom broke or something. In fact, on it's own it is more than 99% effective for six years, so I'm good for another five”. Gert was quiet for a second watching Chase process her information overload when the rest of what he had said before her tirade filtered through her brain, making her blink up at Chase like she's just been hit in the head with a 2x4. “Wait, did you just say you had a crush on _me?_ ”

Chase caught her eye, then looked down, flashing a brief smile. “I thought that was pretty obvious with everything that happened between us at the dance”.

“ I thought that was 'we could be dead by morning, so hooray, one last hook-up' to you” Gert replied incredulous.

“Not for me.” The smile was gone, and he was looking away again. He finally looked back at her and the full force of the emotion in his eyes hit Gert like a meteor. “You could never be just a hook-up to me. I wasn't lying when I said I see you. Even when I was ignoring you, on some level it was to protect you and me from the idiots I was friends with. I always saw you, even when I didn't want to. I've always wanted you, _just you_ , and I think I always will”.

Gert's brain was whirling a million miles an hour as she stared into Chase's eyes. How could he possibly like her. Like _really_ like her. It shouldn't be possible.... _Oh, screw it!_ Gert thought to herself as she reached up to Chase's face, tenderly cupping his jaw in her hand as she pressed her lips to his.

Maybe it was a minute later, maybe it was an hour, but when they broke the kiss, Gert whispered the words she had so desperately been searching for in her mind against his lips "I saw you too. I've always seen you".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First and foremost, USE CONDOMS BOYS AND GIRLS! Only condoms prevent STD's. That being said, IUD's like Mirena (which is what I have experience with, and what I gave Gert) are wonderful long-term birth control that is get-it-and-forget-it, with a better than 99% rate at preventing pregnancy after the first 7 days after placement. That makes it an excellent choice for teens and young women, but it is less common because most teens don't have access to practitioners that know how to place them, and the vast majority of pediatricians have never been trained in IUD placement, so they don't bring it up as an option for teens or younger women.
> 
> Now I'm not going to lie, there is a lot of scary stories out there about IUD's if you feel like researching them (which exploit a few genuine but very very rare side-effects), but if you do a little digging the vast majority of the horror stories trace back to uber-conservative groups that think all birth control is a mortal sin. If you want simple, honest info on IUD's and birth control in general, the Planned Parenthood website is simply invaluable.
> 
> Now, about this chapter: I have mostly finished a third part immediately following where I ended this chapter that devolves into various levels of smut (depending on how I finish it), but definitely shifts to an M or E rating. If there is enough interest I'll add it, if not, I'll think about continuing this as a series of one-shots.


End file.
